Help sought for dumb questions

Pete,
Thanks for your reply.
Navara is 4wd, and the van is off road capable. Good clearance.

Cheers
John

John, being an Alice Springs local I'll just give you a few ideas out here....

1) Go and visit the Royal Flying Doctor visitor center, buy a coffee and poke around (I'm biased, my wife is a nurse for them).
2) Telegraph station on the northside of town, awesome for a picnic, free BBQ facilities.
3) Drive 30km north of town to the Tropic of Capricorn and take your photo :-)
4) East McDonald Ranges (east of town), you have Ross River resort, Trephena Gorge, about 70km out I think. Gorge has a great rim walk but again dont do it in the heat of the day, gets very hot with the heat reflected from the rocks.
5) West Mcdonald Ranges, more to see. Can suggest going out to Glen Helen, on the way there are a number of gorges, Ormiston being the most impressive.
6) If you're on the way to West Mac's and want to bush camp, about 10km after you turn right to Glen Helen (straight ahead is Hermansbug on larapinta Drive), there is a river crossing (dry). Free bush camping, its awesome...drive in a few KMs....its so nice. Look for the "Hugh River" crossing on your map.
7) Once you leave Glen Helen follow the road to Goss's Bluff, HUGE meteroite crater..
8) Keep going, you will hit a t-road, turn right and this is the Merindee loop that goes to Kings Canyon.
9) While Uluru is "nice', go and walk Kings Canyon (early morning as its getting hot out here). If you wanna blow the cash book in for a "dinner under the stars" event. Its worth doing once in your life, Dinner out in teh bush with a "Stargaze" talk.
10) Do the Olgas, valley of the winds walk, its a few hours, impressive :-)
11) Once you start to head home on that road you'll go past Curtin Springs, you must stop and check the place out, dont hesitate to stay there if needed, great place and good tucker...
12) Oh forgot to mention, across road from RFDS is "the reptile center", cant miss it, go and look. Also on north side there is a visitors center at "School of the air", its signposted, definitely worth a look
13) If you need car bits in town, we have a repco, supercheap auto....
14) General hardware, Bunnings on north side of town for other stuff.
15) If you rip your daks, we have a HUGE Kmart and Target (country)
16) Fruit n veggies, Coles and Woolies. Bring your shopper dockets, the fuel here isnt cheap.
17) If you wanna stay overnight in town, Heavitree Gap Park/Lodge. its a safe and friendly place, you can feed the rock wallabies at sunset.
18) Oh Araleun Cultural Center on larapinta drive, nice to look around. Just behind them on the corner of memorial and Larapinta is the "Conellan Airline" hanger. It should be open, its free, walk around and look at the old planes. Right next to Conellan is a large graveyard, go and find Albert Namatijra's grave.. Some bleep burnt down his "twin white gums" on larapinta drive so its no more :-(

If you need any more info, don't hesitate to ask :-)

Pete

Darn, forgot to mention

1) Let your tyres down on the dirt :-) 25psi and less or you will regret it on the Merindee loop
2) Take a puncture kit, darn handy and very easy to use.

Take less than more......especially your sense of humour and adventure:-)

Pete

Sandman, if you're not on some Tourism payroll, you should be.

We'll be in the area around that time as well and I have done a 'cut'n'paste of your reply and put it into my trip notes. I don't think I'll need anything else. Thanks.

Jack

Great reply. Comprehensive and full of local knowledge.

All of that, well almost all, plus a day at the Desert Park and the National Road Transport Hall of Fame, took us five weeks Sandman, without any travel time to get there.Alice Springs has so much to offer.

Motherhen

I'd also add the Alice Springs Desert Park - great displays and an intro to what to look for.

Have a great trip.

Motherhen

I was going to mention the Hall of Fame, slap me :-) I've only been there once, ages ago, I should go back and spend a little more time there.

Honestly Alice IS the gateway to the never Never...

Just last weekend we did 4 days away, Old Andado, Mt Dare, Dalhousie Springs and back via Lambert Center. its just so easy when you live here.

As for Alice, be adventuresome and drive out Larapinta to Flynns's grave, park the car and a 45 minute walk to the top of mt Gillen, awesome and engergetic walk !

Take a lilo out to Ellery Big hole ( on the way to Glenn Helen), there is the Ochre Pits, there..

Darn I feel like anther drive across teh Tanami out to Wolf creek Crater, now that's a SERIOUSLY impressive crater !!!

You could also walk up to the top of Mt Sonder (2nd highest point in the NT) from our near Glen Helen, its the last leg of the larapinta trail...

Boy I could keep going but you'd fall asleep :-)

I jsut love Alice, used to live in Syd most of my life but I saw the light....well red dirt and sunshine I really mean :-)

Enjoy your travels !!!!

Pete in Alice

P.S Vicki, if they move the fence to the desert park out 5 meters, you wouldnt know the difference :-)

Pete that's why I like it - and most likely the only way I'll see Many of the desert mammals and birds! ok some of the reptiles too - a few of which I'm happy not to see outside of a park.

You live in a great spot!

Vicki

I must say I pinch myself every day....sick hey :-) The town has its issues and at times its not pleasant but seriously, if you love the outdoors and arent too fussed not seeing an ocean then its just an awesome place....though 2 years ago we drove up to Broome and swagged it at James Price point for a week.....

My wife works for the Royal Flying doctor and she keeps telling me about the awesome scenery she gets to fly around, I'm making notes, I gotta get there !!! Its getting that sad that I see myself changing cars, moving from a nice Prado to the new D4D V8 Troopcarrier..

Cheers..Pete

Troopie - yum! I would have one in a shot but it would not fit into my work car park.

Vicki, you bad girl... I love your thinking :-) I used to work in Rhodes in Sydney, dont think a Troopy with a cage and tent would fit :-) My current carpark at work, no problems though I ride my pushy to work most days

I got a price on the Troopy last week, was $72K here, called a Toyota dealer in QLD, was $67K...with a great roadtrip to boot !

I called our leasing company, they suggested I wait as there will be a "change of government" in three weeks and the coalition is going to reverse the recent leasing decision :-)

You know you want it Vicki.. you know you want it !!!! :-)

Mark

The roads around Mt Dare are absolutely stuffed. They either didnt close them or opened them too early after rain, some places we were down to 20km/hr with 25psi and tough dog suspension.....That was mainly between Dalhousie and Mt Dare. From Mt Dare to Finke it was a tad better but not much....

Pete

Vicki

You are so right, buy food along the way....Mt Dare actually had well priced food.. in Alice, you cant beat the Todd tavern on Thursday night, Schnitzels for $8.....Heavitree Gap pub does $10 roasts on Sunday night.....

Last time we camped out at the Hugh river, we didn't get up till 10am :-)

The comments about the fridge is right, run it lean it will last a few days, in hot months and trying to freeze stuff, 1 day and you'll run the battery down...

Could even suggest throw in a battery charger, we used it in Broome as we couldn't be bothered driving :-)

Pete

HEY, Geoff! Yeah, the responses have opened up a few more options and the possibility of more trips has been mentioned by SWMBO! ;^}

hi johnat
its wrong to to consider your questions are dumb and look at all the the good answers you have received
but believe it not out of curiosity
I googled------ dumb questions -------and came up with this website I was a bit taken back
but it seems everything is catered for on the web
check this out
www.dumbquestions.com
cheers

Thanks mazcan, the thread title was a bit "tongue in cheek" but got the sort of responses I was after. I appreciate the help from all on here, whether I post in the threads or not, there's a serious amount of knowledge in here!

John, I've walked about 200km in the West MacDonnell Ranges of the 230km Larapinta Trail, + stayed at Glen Helen. Depending on what level of comforts you are after, Ormiston Gorge is the pick of the places to stay in the West MacDonnell ranges. If you do any bushwalks around Alice, make sure it's the half Ormiston Day Pound walk.

IF you head past Coober Pedy, make sure you look at the Breakaways, just north west of the town.

Again if you need any further information, happy to help.

Mark

The question was Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, the meaning of life, and the answer was 42

Terry,
The thread is not exclusive! No need to apologise for "breaking"!

Feel free to add any comments/questions yourself! We'll all benefit, as I know I have from Sandman's replies, as well as the other comments.

With luck, we'll meet on the road somewhere, and share a beer/softie and some war stories!

John

Whatever floats your boat (or something!)
Softies are good when mixed with serious stuff, though!